Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Memorizing scripture


The devotional I'm using had a thing on the Beatitudes of Jesus the other day. It said they are among the literary and religious treasures of the human race, and I would agree. They also stated that, along with the Ten Commandments, the Twenty-Third Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, and a few other passages from the Bible, they are acknowledged to be among the highest expressions of religious insight and moral inspiration.

I don't know about all that, but what I do know is that while reading it, it sort of ignited a spark in me to commit some of those passages to memory. I used to have many verses and passages memorized, but anymore there just doesn't seem to be as much storage space in the ol' noggin as there used to be. But it would probably be a good idea to work at it a little.

So, these are some of the things I'd like to be able to memorize from Scripture:
  • Ten Commandments
  • Twenty-third Psalm
  • Lord's Prayer
  • Beatitudes
  • 7 signs in John (Jesus's miracles)
Certainly I could/should probably do more - and I had always wanted to memorize an entire book of the Bible - but if I memorized one or two from that list I'd be happy. Maybe three or four.

*On a side note.... One of the things I find frustrating nowadays with all the different translations is trying to decide which version of the Bible to use to memorize. The King James is rather archaic, but it seems the most natural for things like Psalm 23. I'm not a big fan of how the NIV words some of these better-known passages, but it's probably the most widely known. Hmmm... what to do?